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In The Trenches

Will you help MPP?

Dear friends:

Hi there. My name is Teresa Skipper, and I use marijuana to stay alive. I wrote to you last week — but maybe my message slipped your attention — to ask you to support MPP with a contribution. For those of us who, for whatever reason, believe that bad marijuana laws need to be changed, MPP is our best hope. Here is why I support MPP.

When I found out in 1995 that I had HIV, my doctors gave me many different medications, and I'm grateful for them because they have kept me alive!

But the side effects are awful. One of my meds comes with a warning that it's sometimes fatal. My stomach feels like a raw egg most days, which is strange because I can't eat most foods. I have no appetite, and it's hard to keep my weight up.

But I've been lucky enough to find something that makes me feel better, restores my appetite, and is the reason I still have good days. That something is marijuana.

Unfortunately, my marijuana also makes me a criminal, because medical marijuana is illegal where I live. In fact, only 14 states allow medical marijuana. MPP is working hard to increase the number of medical marijuana states by changing laws all across the U.S.

MPP is successful because of its strategic approach and its top-notch lobbyists. MPP has a strong track record of actually changing laws, but that work is expensive and MPP is financed by donations from individuals like you and like me. That's why I’m telling you my story and asking you, from the bottom of my heart, to help MPP fight marijuana prohibition, because marijuana use should not make criminals of sick people.

Like many other marijuana users, I have a husband, two children, and one beautiful grandson. I have a bachelor's degree in financial management. I just want to go to work and have a normal life.

But my marijuana use makes me a criminal, and who wants to hire a criminal? If I give up using marijuana, my health deteriorates to the point that I can't work anyway.

MPP is fighting to change marijuana laws so that sick people won’t become criminals when they use marijuana to get relief from pain and suffering. If you share my vision for the future, where medical marijuana will be available in every state, please help MPP today with a donation.

Thank you for letting me tell you my story.

Best wishes,

Teresa Skipper - Hope through MPP

Teresa Skipper

P.S. $7.7 billion — that's how much the U.S. government spends on marijuana prohibition every year. If you'd rather have your tax money spent on something useful, like stopping violent crimes, please donate now to help MPP change marijuana laws.
Blog

Retirement Home Fires Staffer for Medical Marijuana Use

Even though only 20% of Americans still oppose medical marijuana, there's enough lingering prejudice to create serious problems for patients. Via MPP, here's another ugly example of the workplace discrimination many medical users continue to face:

ANDERSON - Although he says he has a doctor's recommendation to smoke medical marijuana, the on-site manager of a senior apartment complex here claims he was fired by its new Southern California-based management company after he failed its drug-screening test.

The firing of Christian Hughes, 33, who has two weeks in which to leave his apartment in the well-kept complex, has raised the ire of some of those senior citizens who live comfortably at the 81-unit Regency Place Senior Apartments on Red Bud Lane. [Record-Searchlight]

Apparently, Hughes's popularity with the residents has made things complicated:

Sixty-four-year-old Diane Bethany, an apartment complex resident who started a petition drive that obtained about 60 signatures in support of Hughes, says she and many others there are upset by his firing.

"He's a terrific guy," she said, adding that he's always been protective of the residents and goes above and beyond his management duties to help them out.

I can't help but grin at the thought of a bunch of seniors signing a petition to protest an unfair marijuana policy. Hopefully, the press coverage will help Christian Hughes find new employment. Moreover, any companies that still discriminate against patients should take note of the public controversy you invite when you fire good people for bad reasons.
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DEA Raids Legal Grower in Colorado, Threatens to Target Dispensaries

For the second time in as many weeks, DEA agents in Colorado raided a medical marijuana operation last Thursday. Highland Park medical marijuana patient and provider Chris Bartkowiscz had been seen showing off his basement garden Tuesday night in a blurb for an upcoming local news report. On Thursday, the DEA raided him, seizing his plants and growing equipment. Bartkowiscz has been jailed pending a decision from the US Attorney's Office on whether to charge him. That decision could come tomorrow. This despite last October's Department of Justice memorandum instructing federal agencies to lay off medical marijuana in states where it is legal—unless the provider is violating both state and federal law. DEA Denver Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Jeffrey Sweetin apparently didn't get the memo. Either that, or he is blatantly thumbing his nose at his bosses, the American attorney general and president. In a Saturday interview with local TV 9 News, Sweetin said that even though state law allows for medical marijuana, federal law does not. "We will continue to enforce the federal law. That's what we are paid to do," he said. Sweetin said the Justice Department guidelines give him discretion. "Discretion is: I can't send my DEA agents out on 10-plant grows. I'm not interested in that, it's not what we do. We work criminal organizations that are enterprises generating funds by distributing illegal substances," Sweetin said. Sweetin left open the door to go after medical marijuana dispensaries. "Technically, every dispensary in the state is in blatant violation of federal law. The time is coming when we go into a dispensary, we find out what their profit is, we seize the building and we arrest everybody. They're violating federal law; they're at risk of arrest and imprisonment," he told the Denver Post. "Technically, every dispensary in the state is in blatant violation of federal law." The October Justice Department memo said the feds should not go after people in "clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." The memo said nothing about "large grows" or dispensaries not be included. Denver medical marijuana attorney Robert Corry is waiting to see whether the feds will charge Bartkowiscz. On Saturday, he filed a complaint with the Justice Department against Sweetin and the DEA, saying the raid on Bartkowiscz violated the agency's policy on enforcing drug laws in states that allow medical marijuana. Has Sweetin gone rogue? Or is the Obama administration retreating from the position staked out in the October memo? Stay tuned.
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Europe: Anthrax Heroin Toll Rises as England Marks First Death

The European death toll from heroin apparently contaminated with anthrax has risen to 11 as England reported its first death Wednesday. There have been nine more in Scotland and one more in Germany, leading to fears the contamination is widespread. The official response is still mainly limited to telling users to stop.
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Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy

"Synthetic 'Legal' Marijuana is Becoming Popular, So They're Trying to Ban It," "Police Put Warning Signs in Front of Drug Houses (Um, Isn't That Free Advertising?)," "Why Do We Even Have a Drug Czar?," "Various Interesting Links," "What's the Point of Asking Obama to Legalize Marijuana? I'll Explain."
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Feature: El Paso City Council Passes Resolution Criticizing Drug War, But Only After Killing Marijuana Regulation Language

In 1913, the El Paso city council became the first in the country to outlaw marijuana. Now, faced with the horrendous prohibition-related violence across the river in Ciudad Juarez, it has passed a resolution condemning current drug policies, but only after dropping language calling for marijuana regulation. It's got three years left until the century mark to get it completely right.
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